Riot reworks Omen’s From the Shadows ability in VALORANT

Riot Games balanced Omen’s From the Shadows ability in the VALORANT 0.49 patch today.

Omen will no longer appear dark after leaving his shadow form and he’ll now be killable immediately upon arrival. The attenuation radius for Omen’s From the Shadows arrival sound was also reduced, making it slightly harder to find him after he teleports.

The From the Shadows ability allows Omen to teleport across the map while also distorting enemy minimaps during the casting of the ability. Before today’s adjustment, for a few moments after arrival, Omen was visible in a darkened form. But if you shot him while he appeared dark, he’d be sent back to where he teleported from instead of taking damage. After today’s change, Omen will now be vulnerable immediately upon becoming visible to the enemy.

This change should make it more clear that Omen can take damage, according to Riot. There’s been some confusion among many VALORANT beta players about when exactly shooting Omen will kill him compared to when it’ll send him back to where he teleported from. Riot also indicated in the patch notes that this addressed an invulnerability bug in addition to improving the visual clarity of the game.

Since the vulnerability change is a significant nerf to From the Shadows, Riot also reduced the attenuation of the arrival sound for the ability to 2,250. This adjustment will mean that players have to be much closer to Omen’s destination to find him via the arrival sound.

“Attenuation is a big word, but the short of it is you have to be closer to Omen to echolocate where he’s teleporting to,” Riot said. “We’re trying to give him some spook back since if you do find him, you should now have him dead to rights.”

Overall, these are solid adjustments to the From the Shadows ability. Visual clarity is essential in a tactical shooter like VALORANT and the adjustments to Omen’s shadow form eliminate any confusion about when to shoot him. Additionally, before the patch, Omen’s arrival noise was far too loud, making discovering him an easy task. The ease of discovering Omen’s teleport ability contradicted the character’s design, which is supposed to prioritize stealth and misdirection. The ability feels much more tactical and cohesive following these changes.

Omen was the only character to receive major balance changes in the 0.49 patch. The patch also brought a number of important updates, new features, and bug fixes.

You can check out the full patch notes here.